The Sisterhood
by ilovetvalot
Summary: You don't need to share the same blood to be a sister at heart. Just my insight into JJ and Garcia's relationship.


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**The Sisterhood**

She found her quarry out on the roof just as she'd suspected. If there was one thing she knew about her best gal pal, it was that if she had to hurt, she preferred to lick her wounds in privacy.

Closing the steel door quietly behind her, she sighed as she watched JJ's back stiffen, her senses on high alert. "It's just me, Buttercup. Keep that gun in its holster," she ordered lightly as she wrapped her sunny yellow sweater tighter against her as the cool autumn breeze blew over the tall building.

Closing her eyes as she heard the familiar sound of her best friend's voice, JJ relaxed marginally, wiping her wet cheeks with the back of her hands. "Who called you?" she asked bluntly, her head hanging in defeat.

"You should have," Garcia chided, perching on the metal bench next to JJ.

"Couldn't," JJ mumbled as she attempted to dry her tears. "I didn't grab my cell phone before I made my escape." She shook her head, sniffling.

"Or your jacket," Garcia noted, deftly tossing JJ's blazer around her shoulders.

Sighing as she slid her arms through the sleeves and crossed her arms over her chest, she mumbled her thanks. Smiling as Penelope pressed a bag of Cheetos into her hand, she whispered, "I guess everybody inside knows what happened, huh?"

"That your now ex-boyfriend resembles a feminine product used on a dewy summer's eve? Yeah, the team received that memo," Garcia snorted, her lips pursing as her fingers itched to wrap themselves around Will LaMontagne's neck.

Laughing weakly at Penelope's vivid imagery, JJ's shoulders shook as her chuckle quickly turned into a broken sob. Feeling Garcia's arm wrap around her, JJ shook her head furiously. "I knew this was coming," she whispered. "I knew!"

In friendship, there were times to talk and times to remain silent; Penelope had no problem discerning which moment this was. Wrapping her hand around JJ's stiff fingers, she waited.

Crying softly for a few more minutes, JJ blew her nose on the tissue Garcia pressed into her palm.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" Penelope asked gently.

Blinking rapidly as she stared down at the crumpled Kleenex, JJ swallowed. "It's been coming for months. After Emily's...situation, I became distant. I know I did. It was bad enough keeping secrets from you guys...but, at home, it was even worse. I felt guilty. Watching all of you grieve...then going home to my family...I just sort of closed myself off. If I wasn't saying anything to anyone, I wasn't actually lying, you know?"

"Will was getting angrier and angrier and...when the truth came out, he just sort of snapped. He said that my secrets had destroyed us as a couple. That if I couldn't trust him, then we didn't even have a foundation to stand on."

Eyes widening as she listened to JJ's stilted confidence, Penelope blinked. "Did he even stop to think that if Doyle even vaguely suspected that you knew anything, that it made his son a target?" she asked furiously.

"Oh, he pointed that out. He thinks I willfully put both him and Henry at risk without his approval or consent," JJ replied huskily, dropping her eyes back to her lap.

"Peaches," Garcia said, beginning to shake her head.

"He's not wrong, Garcia. My choices could have put them in danger," JJ stated resolutely, her tongue thick in her mouth. "But only if someone found out," she added ardently as she raised her head again. "That's why State put a gag order on me. Limiting the number of people in the loop was the only way they had to manage the situation. Doyle was a national security risk. A deranged, irrational national security risk."

"Gumdrop, you don't need to convince me of that," Garcia soothed. "Are you forgetting who was building the secret dossier on our international man of mystery while none of you were the wiser?"

"No," JJ said softly, wiping a stray tear off her cheek. "I'm not."

"We all had to make hard decisions, my love," Garcia said compassionately, smiling gently at the woman that she loved like a sister. "And we all suffered for them in our own way. And next to Em, I'd say you've endured the most. And it is the humble opinion of this particular Goddess that that former boy toy of yours should be castrated for not being able to see what was standing right in front of him. Say the word and I'll make some calls."

Leaning her head against Garcia's shoulder, JJ released a watery laugh. "The scary part is that I know you're serious."

"As Steve Jobs was about the Apple," Penelope replied somberly, popping an air kiss against her friend's head.

Exhaling a long breath as she sagged weakly against her best friend, JJ asked softly, "How come you never turned your wrath on me, Garcie? I betrayed you, too. All the rest of them...I know they look at me like Benedict Arnold. But, not you. Why?"

"Oh, sugar pie," Garcia trilled as she smiled faintly, "Even when I was tempted to strangle you with your pretty blonde hair...and believe me, I was - after all, I'm partially responsible for the tag line "off the grid" - I knew you had our collective backs. The woman I know and love like a sister would never do anything to hurt one of us. Deep down in my heart, I knew that if I'd been the one in Em's position, you would have risked it all for me, too. You honored the sisterhood...and the brotherhood, too, for that matter. Some bonds just can't be broken. You did what you did to keep everyone safe. At the end of the day, I saw that, Sweetums. And honestly, if Will had really loved you, he would have realized it, too."

"I don't know, Garcie," JJ whispered, closing her eyes again as she attempted to control the torrent of emotions threatening to overtake her once again.

"I do. Those people that you assume think of you as a traitor? There all down in the bullpen right now," Garcia informed her gently.

"Are they getting a good laugh? This should give everybody a since of vindication," JJ choked, tearing up again.

"Uhmmm...not so much, Buttercup. When I scampered up here, Quantico's answer to The Last Don was ranting about calling in a few favors from Commack. Reid was calculating the acidity of various lakes in which to dump the body of He Who Shall Not Be Named. Morgan was offering to give you former love a high five. In the Face. With a chair. Emily was blaming herself. And Hotch was trying to devise a way to keep everybody, himself included, out of jail."

Lifting her head, JJ stared at Penelope. "Seriously? Even Spence?"

"Yep!" Garcia nodded. "You and Hotch made choices, my lovely. Not all of us agreed with them, that's true. But at the end of the day...when the chips are down and it's time to lay our cards on the table, we're family. And family takes care of family, first and always."

Blinking as JJ absorbed her words, she slowly bent her head. "I think Henry and I are really going to need our family more than ever."

Squeezing JJ's arm before rising and offering her a hand, Garcia winked. "Then let's go make sure half of them don't end up in jail tonight, Sister."

Allowing Garcia to tug her toward the metal door, JJ sighed.

With friends and family like this, maybe there was some hope for her after all.

_**Finis**_

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_**Just a little oneshot highlighting PG & JJ's friendship. What do you think?**_


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